I was on the April thread though I started posting here by the end of April when I was convinced my son would be a May birth. To those facing the possibility of induction, I do hope first that your labour does kick in naturally, as I do think it would be nicer to be admitted straight to a delivery suite.
I had an appt with the doctor at the hospital on 30 April at 40 + 6, and was booked in for induction with admission at 7 pm on 2 May. As others have mentioned, I was petrified at the prospect of the night on my own - visiting is 9 8 or 9 (I can't remember now) for husband/ partner and 3-8 for others. I was in tears at the end of the appt, and the doctor was apologising.
We don't have a car but friends nearby had offered us lifts lots of times for shopping etc, not previously taken up, so I asked them for a lift to the hospital. I'd armed myself with a choice of books (!) in case things took time to get going and to get me through time on my own if I couldn't sleep, a vampire crime novel, a historical novel and a more serious but very readable oral history collection of short interviews with ordinary people.
Soon after being settled into a bay and the initial internal examination and being given some gel, I threw up on the bed, unfortunately this was during the handover meeting and in the end I got clean bedding mainly because of the patient in the next cubicle who kindly sent her other half to look for someone to come and help me urgently.
The midwife in charge of the nightshift, Stella, once she started on the work of the night, turned out to be a real star, one of several brilliantly caring people with their own style of doing their job. She recognised that my need for Mike's support for a little longer was more important than strict adherence to ward visiting hours, and this was apparent on other wards as well, at the hospital I was at, if your partner is quiet, polite and helpful, while the hospital can't offer a bed, they are more flexible than the rules suggest.
In the end, we agreed that Mike should go home about 11 pm or so and try to get some sleep, but he stayed with me until I was calm enough to cope on my own for a bit. Stella advised that Mike should go and have some rest, but that she would call him as soon as anything started to happen - the bus route between our house and the Whittington is 24 hour with less than 5 mins walk total to reach the bus. I'd been put in a bay without a reading light, but the woman in the next bay who'd been so kind earlier had moved on to the delivery suite, and when Mike asked about me wanting to read, I was simply moved in there.
So I read for some time, and scuttled back and forth between the bed and the bathroom (I'd been too anxious to really make use of the bathroom at home properly earlier in the day). At 2 am I finally thought I might get some sleep. But then, I found I was getting very uncomfortable, and by about 2.30 am I was sure I was getting contractions not just constipation.
Stella offered to call Mike but I waited a little longer before calling him myself on the mobile at about 3.30 am. It did take a while for Mike to get back to the hospital, as he missed a bus and didn't get the next until 5 am, but there was plenty of time for him to arrive.
My mum also came to the hospital for my labour, which lasted until 4.29 am on Friday morning, so 26.5 hours from me realising that I had contractions (my waters were broken on Thursday morning by a midwife, and that first stage of labour was very long and slow).
The big disadvantage of induction from my point of view is that I was given things that had to be monitored so I was wired up to machines and on my back for a lot of the labour, not what I would have chosen. But it happened, eventually, baby was safely delivered (vaginally, with the help at the end of a ventouse cup) and in some lunacy I resisted pain relief other than gas and air (I was more scared of more injections than of the pain, I think, I'm not sure). While I wish I hadn't had to be induced, I was very happy to finally have my baby in my arms and not to have to wait, and I was more than satisfied with how things had gone under the circumstances.
So, ask, or get your partner to ask, questions about what they're doing, think about what you want if you do have further choices during the labour process, take something to distract yourself with if you have a wait for the induction methods to take effect. good luck. And hope to learn what happens, and of the births of all your babies.
I can't believe, now, that it will be a month tomorrow, 31 days! that I checked into the Whittington. Where did May go? Compared to April. Those of you still waiting will no doubt be feeling that May has dragged, but June will fly by.